By Segun Ayobolu

IT is only natural that the still unfolding sensational drama of what is emerging as the rise and fall of celebrated and much decorated ‘super cop’, CP Abba Kyari, following revelations by America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of alleged criminal transactions between the law enforcement officer and indicted international hi-tech fraudster, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi, has further worsened the image and perception challenges of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). Easily the most detested, even hated, public organization in Nigeria, the atrocious excesses of its now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was the cause of last year’s massive #EndSARS that rocked many states in the country. But the sheer impunity, callousness, inhumanity and rampant corruption associated with the SARS outfit are believed to be widely pervasive throughout the rank and file of the NPF. The apparently chummy relationship between a top crime-buster and a confessed as well as indicted criminal, with an openly flamboyant life style sustained by stupendous wealth of suspect origin, is astounding.

Even if the allegations of criminal complicity with Hushpuppi is ultimately not proven beyond reasonable doubt, which is highly unlikely given the avalanche of evidence amassed by the FBI and which are in the public space, the association of Abba Kyari with a man who ought to be atop his watch list in the discharge of his professional duties is damning enough. Surely, given his training and experience as a detective, Hushpuppi’s publicly- flaunted extravagant lifestyle ought to have triggered the suspicious instincts of the ‘super cop’. Alas, not only did Abba Kyari admittedly engage in transactions he considered legitimate with a notorious self-confessed fraudster, it has emerged that he had, over the years, also flaunted an exhibitionist, materialistic lifestyle on the social media in a manner difficult to distinguish from the conmen and gangsters he was employed to track, apprehend and haul before the law. For instance, what could justify Kyari’s self-exhibited presence at the recent obscene and utterly insensitive burial ceremony of the mother of a prominent celebrity and socialite where money in diverse currencies was wantonly squandered and debased with reckless abandon in an environment characterized by pervasive poverty?

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has rightly said that Abba Kyari will only be handed over for trial in the United States as demanded by the FBI in accordance with strict adherence to due process. This is as it should be. But how much more glorious it would have been if Abba Kyari, given his professional reputation and confident of his unimpeachable innocence as well as integrity, sought the permission of his bosses, voluntarily travelled to the US, submitted himself to the judicial process and come out clean. That would have been a spectacularly redemptive moment not just for the ‘super cop’ as an individual but even more for the NPF and particularly for Nigeria’s image. But then, is the NPF made up largely of corrupt, undisciplined and irresponsible officers and men operating in a Nigerian society characterized by high ethical standards and discipline as well as widespread aversion to corruption? This is certainly not the case. Rather, the much lamented evils of the NPF, particularly its corrupt ethos, are only reflective of the decadent and perverse values of the larger society.

Read Also: Disu takes over from Kyari at IRT

In truth, the amoral disposition to conduct in formal office, both in the public and private sectors, which informs the utilization of organizational roles to corruptly and criminally accumulate wealth, is no less pervasive in the civil service, media, academia, legislature, judiciary, business corporations, as well as civil society and non-governmental organizations to name a few. Thus, the average policeman either at the checkpoint on the highway or in his office at operational headquarters perceives his uniform, weapons and immense authority as means of primitive accumulation through exploitation of the public or collusion with criminal elements. Even then, beyond the Abba Kyari debacle, there is still hope for redemptive institutional change in the NPF.

For instance, the promptness and sense of urgency with which the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Usman Alkali Baba, responded to the allegations against Kyari, suspended him from office to allow for a thorough investigation and set up a four-man team to undertake the task, is in itself exemplary and highly commendable. It signals a leadership with little toleration for the kind of impunity now associated with the NPF. Even more, the choice of DCP Tunji Disu as Kyari’s replacement as Head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) was certainly well thought out and carefully considered. As the immediate past Commander of the elite anti-crime outfit in Lagos State, the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Disu was the epitome of efficiency, effectiveness, diligence, firmness, professional dexterity and humility. He instilled in his men a high sense of self-esteem which engendered high ethical conduct and compassionate, respectful relationship with the public.

Always impeccably kitted, men of the RRS became well known and admired for such humanitarian acts as providing succor to accident victims on the highways, giving assistance to stranded commuters and vehicles, including provision of liters of fuel to drivers in extreme situations, conveying women in labour to medical facilities in emergency cases even while proficiently discharging their primary responsibility of combating crime. Disu holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the Lagos State University (LASU), a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, and has attended several professional courses abroad and within the country. He has served with distinction in diverse capacities in units and commands across the country without a whiff of scandal to his name.

Disu’s predecessor at the RRS, who also served with immense positive impact, is Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, now Lagos State Commissioner of police. Before his tenure at the RRS, Odumosu had headed the Lagos State Environmental Task Force Team, which played a key role in the remarkable improvement in the previously notoriously chaotic environment of the megacity. Tough, uncompromising and ruthless in his war against criminals, Odumosu is nicknamed ‘Tango Fire Fire’!, especially by those lawless elements at the receiving end of his fierce onslaught.

Ascetic and focused, Odumosu holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria; a Bachelor of Law degree and an M.Sc in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) as well as a Masters degree in Public Administration from LASU. Apart from at least four postgraduate diplomas in different disciplines, he has written two educational books on English language and grammar. In his scores of postings across the country over the years, Odumosu has served with diligence, commitment, excellence and without blemish.

The immediate past Commissioner of Police in Nassarawa State, Mr. Bola Longe, is one of those recently elevated to the position of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) and has resumed work at the police headquarters in Abuja. Bola Longe was my course mate both during our first and second degrees in Political Science at the University of Ibadan. Uncompromisingly radical and reflexively anti-establishment as a student, Bola Longe was one of the most charismatic and impactful presidents of the Students Union of the premier university. In addition to his B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Political Science, he holds a Masters degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from the University of Ibadan, a Bachelor of Law degree also from the premier university and an LLB (Hons) from the Nigerian Law School. Again, Longe has an exemplary record of excellence in the various responsibilities he has been assigned over the years both across the country and abroad. A pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), his fierce disdain for any form of corruption is widely acknowledged in the force.

What characterizes these officers is their great pride in the profession of policing, the uniform of the police officer and the NPF as an institution. These are, of course, only three out of the numerous accomplished cops of outstanding competence and character in the Force. Like his immediate predecessor, Mohammed Adamu, the current IGP deserves credit for identifying and elevating some of the best and brightest talents in the force. If this kind of commitment to merit and excellence is sustained, there is no doubt that brighter, better and more glorious days lie ahead of the NPF. But this will be dependent on massive infusion of funds to comprehensively re-tool the force to improve its operational efficiency as well as substantially enhance staff welfare to boost morale and institutional self-esteem.

WHEN he recently led members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), which he leads as Chairman, to present its interim progress report to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Yobe State governor, Mallam Mai Mala Buni, claimed that the committee had resolved raging crises within the party, reconciled warring factions and tendencies and restored peace and normalcy. “I am pleased to state that the party is now more peaceful, more accommodating and more united with greater prospects than when we came on board”, Buni told the President. An impressed Buhari noted in response that, hitherto, the party structure was disturbed by the conflicts that preceded and followed various elections but that, under the Buni-led CECPC, the party secretariat had been witnessing a beehive of peaceful activities because of the success of the committee’s reconciliation efforts.

The crises and vehement disagreements witnessed in several states during the APC’s ward congresses, which held nationwide last Saturday with the exception of Anambra and Zamfara states, however, indicate that whatever peace and harmony governor Buni enthused about was no more than that of the graveyard in many states. In Delta, Kwara, Akwa-Ibom, Ogun, Osun, Lagos, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Niger, Enugu and Rivers, for instance, there were discordant tunes and parallel congresses by apparently still dueling and unreconciled factions and tendencies. This is, of course, not necessarily a failure of the CECPC. After all, the exercise was largely hitch free in some other states including Kebbi, Abia, Ondo, Kaduna, Adamawa, Sokoto, Gombe, Edo, Kano, Borno, Plateau and Kogi among others. It is only that the belief that disagreements and crises could be resolved once and for all and contradictory tendencies permanently reconciled or eliminated within a political party is unrealistic and illusory. Contending factions, fractions and tendencies are inalienable features of political parties much more one as large as the APC and given the trajectory of its hurried formation as an election winning coalition to dislodge the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power at the centre.

Rather than seeking to achieve the impossible, even undesirable, goal of eradicating contending intra-party interests and tendencies, what is critical is to hold constitutional structures, processes, principles and provisions of the party inviolable and binding on all members no matter how highly placed. In a political party run in accordance with the principles of justice and adherence to the rule of law, all ‘animals’ should be equal and some, including state governors and other public office holders, not deemed to be more equal than others. It is exactly on this score that the APC shot itself on the foot when, on June 16, 2020, it removed the comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party from office in a manner that did not conform with the provisions of its constitution. Following the Court of Appeal’s affirmation of Oshiomhole’s suspension by his ward, which rendered his continuation as National Chairman untenable, the party should have filled the ensuing leadership vacuum and resolved any attendant crises scrupulously in accordance with its constitution.

Read Also: APC and the perils of impunity (1)

What happened, however, was that the Assistant National Secretary of the party, Mr Victor Geidam, who had at that time reportedly resigned his party position to contest for an elective office, unilaterally declared himself Acting National Chairman on the basis of a purported court ruling of dubious and nebulous provenance. It was on that pedestal of brazen impunity that he convened a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party at which the NWC was dissolved and the CECPC set up. How a President Buhari, whose credential of commitment to due process his aides often flaunt, was convinced to lend the weight and authority of his office to this travesty is baffling. It is not impossible that some of those in the President’s inner circle believe that the immense powers and resources of the presidency can now be mobilized to seize control of the APC and alter the balance of forces within the party as originally constituted by the legacy parties that coalesced in its formation.

In plotting such acts of impunity, however, the shadowy actors did not anticipate and plug all possible loopholes as almost invariably always happens in such cases of subversive intrigue and subterfuge. Thus, by appointing a sitting governor to head the CECPC and act as its National Chairman, the party plainly ignored the clear and unambiguous provision of Article 17 (iv)of its constitution, which states that “No officer in any organ of the party shall hold executive office in government concurrently”. And with no less clarity, Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution states that “The Governor shall not, during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever”. If language means anything, these unequivocal declarations give no room for maneuver to those who wish to violate them. It was on this potential banana pill that the APC only narrowly escaped losing its emphatic gubernatorial electoral triumph in Ondo State when a slim 4-3 majority verdict of the Supreme Court affirmed governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s victory on the technical ground that the petitioner, Mr Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), did not join Buni, whose legality as Acting National Chairman of the party was challenged, as a party in the suit.

Following the ruling of the apex court, some voices of reason in the ruling party, particularly some of its senior lawyers, have sought to get the party to  chart a redemptive path out of its current journey of impunity and return to adherence to constitutionality and the rule of law. But impelled  by what can rightly be described as the arrogance of power, a number of other leading lawyers and members of the party are advising the APC to double down and maintain the Buni-led CECPC in place apparently believing that, as the ruling party, it possesses sufficient, power, clout and resources to overcome any judicial hurdles. Those who are advising the party, with its eyes wide open, to plunge headlong into the thorny thicket of impunity with possible devastating consequences for its structures at all levels have obviously learnt no lessons from the APC’s self-inflicted electoral reversals in Zamfara, Rivers and Bayelsa states courtesy of judicial decisions that sanctioned its constitutional violations.

Asserting their support for the continuity of the Buni-led CECPC, some leaders of the party contend, implausibly, that the binding majority judgement of the Supreme Court actually affirms the legality of the caretaker committee as well as the constitutionality of Buni’s position. According to the APC Governors Forum, for instance, “The judgement has also settled the legality of the National Caretaker  and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee. The court has correctly ruled that in line with Section 13.3 of the APC Constitution, the CECPC was constituted by the National Executive Council of the APC to act as the National Working Committee”.

Responding to this view, a number of concerned lawyers within the APC have pointed out that “For the sake of clarity, the Supreme Court did not affirm Buni’s leadership of CECPC as lawful. The Supreme Court rather refused to pronounce on it DEFINITIVELY until Buni is made a party to a pre-election matter or a civil suit. The Supreme Court did not even clothe him with immunity in this regard. It was silent on it”. Continuing, the lawyers submitted that “The Supreme Court only reaffirmed the right of APC and any political party to constitute Committees like the Caretaker Committee to run its affairs on an interim basis. Nobody has ever questioned this right. What is in issue is the legality or  constitutionality  of Buni, a serving governor, appointed to head such a Committee and the full effect of this breach, if considered on the merits”. The APC can certainly not predict the ultimate outcome of any legal challenge to the constitutionality of the Buni-led CECPC. Why then should it be difficult for the party to steer clear of all forms of illegality and refrain from taking avoidable and potentially self-destructive risks? The party should remember the adage: ‘Those whom the gods want to destroy, they first make mad’!

Echoes of excellence from FUOYE

LEADERSHIP matters. At the end of its evaluation of new academic programmes  at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, (FUOYE) in March/April, 2021, the National Universities Commission (NUC), on 2nd August, 2021, accorded full accreditation to six academic programmes of the university. The programmes, which have run successfully for two academic sessions after approval was obtained for their introduction, are Agriculture as well as Hospitality & Tourism Management in the Faculty of Agriculture;

English & Literary Studies and Theatre & Media Arts in the  Faculty of Arts;  and Demography & Social Statistics as well as Sociology in the Faculty of  Social Sciences.

Established during the tenure of the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Kayode Soremekun, the fully accredited academic programmes will be valid for five years before being revisited according to the guiding regulations of the NUC. Suffice it to note that students admitted for programmes subsequently denied accreditation suffer dire and unsavory consequences. This feat testifies to the high standard of instruction, staff and facilities at FUOYE and demonstrates, once again, that with the requisite qualitative leadership, even relatively newly established universities can soar high.

By Segun Ayobolu

UNDERSTANDABLY and characteristically, leading legal minds in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have expressed divergent views on and interpretations of the Supreme Court verdict that legitimated the electoral victory of Ondo State governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) on Wednesday. While the majority judgement delivered by four judges of the apex court dismissed the appeal of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Mr Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), and affirmed Akeredolu’s victory, a minority of three judges of the apex court allowed Jegede’s appeal and found the governor’s victory in the election, nugatory and void. Of course, the majority judgement prevails and Aketi remains governor of the state.

But the victory is widely perceived as a narrow escape by the governor as the verdict could easily have gone either way and the PDP could as well have been in control of Ondo state by now. It is instructive that the fulcrum of Jegede’s appeal was not that Akeredolu did not win the election. That fact could hardly be creditably disputed. Rather, the plank on which his appeal stands was that the Caretaker National Chairman of the APC, Mr Mai Mala Buni, who signed Akeredolu’s nomination form forwarded to INEC, was unqualified and incompetent to do so since the APC constitution only allowed a duly elected National Chairman of the party do so. In other words, the nomination was therefore irregular and illegal. In lawyer parlance, something cannot stand on nothing. The minority judgements both at the Appeal and Supreme Courts upheld this position.

It is instructive that all seven judges on the Supreme Court panel agreed with the submission that pertinent questions arise as regards the legality of Buni’s current dual positions as both governor of Yobe State and Acting National Chairman of the APC. Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution explicitly and unambiguously states that a governor cannot simultaneously hold the position of governor and at the same time occupy any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever. In her lead minority judgement, Justice Mary Peter-Odili noted that the APC by Article 17(4), of its constitution has provided for how it’s affairs should be managed and what offices its members could occupy at a time. As she crisply put it, “This article draws strength from Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution. Therefore, when the second respondent (APC) put up a person not qualified  to author its nomination, by virtue of the provision of Article 12(4) of its constitution and Section 93 to do so, that document is null and void”. Thus, the APC should not be allowed to profit from its inexplicably willful lawlessness.

However, the majority judgement was of the view that Jegede’s appeal was fatally flawed because he did not make Buni a party to the petition and so the latter did not have an opportunity to defend himself in accordance with the principle of fair hearing.  But the minority judgement averred that there was no need for Buni to be joined in the petition since the APC had been sued and the Yobe state governor had acted illegally on behalf of the party by signing Akeredolu’s nomination form when he was legally incompetent to do so. It is not often in recent times that we have seen this kind of robust and vigorous disputation by dissenting judgements of the Apex court. This is certainly good for the apex court, salutary for the evolution of Nigerian jurisprudence, positive for the robust promotion and defense of he rule of law and necessary for the the institutional autonomy and resilience that is necessary for the nurturing of a vibrant and sustainable democratic culture.

No less enchanting and stimulating have been the exciting debates among some leading legal practitioners as regards the interpretation of the Supreme Court verdict and its implications for the APC. In his characteristically robust and brutally frank intervention, Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), was of the view that “the little technical point that saved governor Akeredolu was that Jegede failed to join Mai Mala Buni in the suit” and pointing out that “Any other person affected by the actions of the Buni-led  CECPC will, henceforth, not fail to join him in any subsequent case in court. These include any subsequent election matter in any part of the country and the APC primaries that are about to hold. The Supreme Court has just weaponized all those that would be aggrieved by the APC congresses to proceed to court to challenge the competence of the Buni-led CECPC to organize the congresses and national convention”.

It would appear that in offering this professional advice, Keyamo has in mind the high cost to the party in Zamfara and Rivers states  for acts of rampant violation of its own constitution that rendered it ineligible to contest for key elective offices. An act of legal infraction was also responsible for the nullification of APC’s electoral victory in Bayelsa  state at the last polls. But a senior counsel in the Rotimi Akeredolu legal team, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN) has a position diametrically opposed to that of Keyamo. He argued that minority judgements have no value and are of no legal consequences. True, the minority judgement cannot override the majority decision. But it is certainly of immense intellectual, jurisprudential and historical value. Such judgements will certainly come within the contemplation and studies of legal minds as they seek to deepen knowledge and expand the horizon of Justice in the continuous development of Criminal justice administration in any jurisdiction.

Again, Chief Akintola  asserted that “the Supreme Court upheld the position of the Court of Appeal and the Election Petition Tribunal that Buni’s position as governor doesn’t contravene provisions of  Section 183. The congresses can go ahead as scheduled. There is nowhere the majority judgement that says Buni preached Section 183. The minority judgement is of no value, it has no consequences”. It would be more accurate to say, in my view, that since Buni was not joined as a party in Jegede’s petition, the majority decision did not advert its mind to issue of whether or not his appointment as Acting National Chairman violated Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution. Thus, in his lead judgement, Justice Emmanuel Agim submitted that “All the issues raised, revolved around Mala Buni. But Mala Buni , who is at the centre ,of the dispute was not made a party to the petition. It is obvious that the determination of the issues will affect him…Failure to join him render the determination of the matter impossible. To proceed to do so would have violated the fair trial of the case”. Keyamo’s pertinent question is: would the story not possibly have been different if Buni had been joined in Jegede’s petition? What would happen if in forthcoming elections in Anambra, Osun and Ekiti, aggrieved parties decide to make a legally incapacitated Chairman of the caretaker committee a party to whatever suit they choose to file in court?

By Segun Ayobolu

As the ruling party in the centre and in several states, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has not only the responsibility of maintaining the security of lives and property across the country, the primary and most important duty of government, but also to ensure good and effective governance across diverse spheres and sectors. It is obvious that security is one of the most serious challenges that the APC governments at the centre and in the states confront. On assumption of power in 2015, the party inherited the protracted Boko Haram insurgency in the North- East from the erstwhile ruling party, the PDP. However, under the APC’s watch, this dire and combustible scenario of insecurity has widened nationwide to include Banditry and kidnapping in the North-East as well as widespread herdsmen-farmers clashes in the North- Central and sundry criminalities by herdsmen in the South-West and South-East. We cannot also discount insurgent and separatist restiveness and agitations by some elements in the South-West and South-East, mostly motivated by what is seen as the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s skewed appointments and policies allegedly to favor his own part of the country to the detriment of others.

It is, of course, inevitable that the dire security situation would have unsavory consequences for agriculture and food production as well as for economic recovery and sustainable growth generally. This has been worsened by the unanticipated Coronavirus pandemic which grossly affected the country’s main revenue source, crude oil sales, thus resulting in hugely plummeting national revenues. Consequently, inflation has risen astronomically, food prices have climbed steeply and the already deplorable state of social service delivery has worsened further. All of these have taken the shine off the administration’s otherwise commendable effort in completing critical road and rail infrastructure that had been long abandoned by the preceding PDP governments as well as initiating new ones.

Given the serious nature of the challenges confronting the Buhari administration, it is unfortunate that some elements within the APC have chosen to play distracting and potentially disruptive and destructive intra-party politics rather than allow the administration at the centre and the states controlled by the party to focus in a single minded manner on the problems that have life and death implications for huge numbers of the citizenry. For instance, it is a grand irony that the bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements in the north in particular are focused, determined and serious-minded in seeking to achieve their nefarious objectives. This much was demonstrated,once again this week, by the bandits’ shooting down of a fighter jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in Zamfara state. The criminal elements obviously have continued to upgrade their fighting capacity and this must bother both the administration and the military.

What the APC confronts in presiding over the affairs of Nigeria in these troubling times is a multi-dimensional crisis that requires its unflinching focus and concentration to effectively deal with. But it is exactly when the party machinery and its stakeholders should be working hard to enable the President deliver on the party’s electoral mandate, that debilitating and unhelpful intra-party wrangling have become the order of the day within the APC. When the governor of Zamfara state, for instance, decamped from the PDP to the APC in June this year, no less than 11 APC governors were on ground in Gusau to receive him into the party. This was absolutely time-wasting and needless. Many of these governors face serious crises of governance in their respective states and should not take their eyes off the ball even for a single minute. It is obvious that the criminal elements that constitute such a danger to us all have their attention focused on their destructive objectives always.

An example of the kind of distraction I am referring to here is the fact that the Yobe State governor, Mallam Mai Mala Buni, has had his attention divided between the mandate the electorate gave him to govern the state and his assignment as the National Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC. This is no mean task. For, being National Chairman to preside over the affairs of a party like the APC across the country is no less onerous and demanding than being governor of a state. It is impossible for one man to undertake both responsibilities without one or both suffering badly. Thus, the Chairman of the PDP in Yobe state, Ambassador Umar Mohammed El-Gash, in a recent newspaper interview decried what he described as the governor’s prolonged absence from the state various times as a result of his national assignment for the APC.

As Ambassador El-Gash put it, “To me, his assignment as APC National Chairman should be secondary because they have not elected him to chair the ruling party. Everybody is talking about this; not only we in the opposition but even members of his party are also not happy with the way and manner he is giving much attention to APC national assignment than Yobe and I keep wondering what benefits of his engagement with his party at the centre will be to the state”. To be fair to Buni, he cannot be blamed for having to take on a responsibility given him by his party. The problem lies with those who did not see that there was everything wrong with saddling a sitting state governor with this assignment especially at this time.

To the credit of the PDP Yobe State Chairman, he applauded some of the initiatives of the Mai Buni administration in the state such as the construction of an ultra-modern market in the state capital or the ongoing construction of a Cargo Airport. This means that if he were not distracted by the APC assignment, the governor has the presence of mind and competence to accomplish great things for Yobe State. But when we consider the security situation in the state particularly, it will be  seen that it was unwise to saddle Buni with this assignment. For instance, in April, 2021, over 2000 residents were reportedly displaced from Geidam town in the state when it was attacked by Boko Haram insurgents in a prolonged siege. The Executive Secretary of the Yobe State Emergency Management Agency (YOSEMA), Mohammed Goje, said the displaced persons were being camped in Yunusari and Yusafari Local Government Areas. Earlier, in January, 2021, suspected Boko Haram extremists had again attacked Geidam.

Again, in March 2021, suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked  Kartako community in Gubja Local Government Area of Yobe state shooting sporadically and causing widespread panic in the community. The gunmen who reportedly struck at 5.30 am were said to have set ablaze a military formation in the community while also burning down a primary school and a healthcare center. Barely  a week after displacing over 6,000 residents in Geidam, the gunmen reportedly struck again in Kanamma, headquarters of Yunusari Local Government Area of the state. In May 2021, the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that about 45,000 residents mainly women and children had fled their homes in Geidam and Yunusari areas after Boko Haram had escalated attacks in the North-East region.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Ongoing insecurity in Geidam and Kanama towns, as well as remote locations in Yunusau, Yunufari, Bursari and Tarmua Local Government Areas is impeding access to Internally Displaced Persons. The security of resources to respond to needs remains challenging for government and partners. Multiple displacements and unpredictable movements are impacting efforts to identify and register many of the IDPs. New arrivals in host communities have signaled food, shelter, health and protection services among the most urgent needs”. I cite these examples to show that governance in a state like Yobe cannot be a part time affair with the governor also simultaneously serving as National Chairman of his party.

What should have been a six-month stint for the CECPC to conduct ward, state, local government and the National Convention to restore the APC to democracy and normalcy has become an interminable affair spanning over a year and still with no clear indication when the tenure of the caretaker committee will end. In the interim, therefore, the APC is incapacitated to run as a democratic organization since all its elected organs are dead for all practical purposes and inoperative. The implication is that the party cannot effectively and meaningfully add value to the quality of governance by the administrations elected on its platform at all levels.

It would also appear that the masterminds of the current drama unfolding in the ruling party are bent on decimating the opposition PDP while also exercising a hegemonic hold on the APC by asphyxiating the legacy parties that came together to form the party and enthroning one of them as the dominant and hegemonic force in the party. In the short run, this may  seem to be a tantalizing option to take but it is shortsighted and ultimately self-destructive. For, an iron law of history is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Some elements within the APC may desire to considerably weaken any opposition to the ruling party from other parties while also seizing control and eliminating other tendencies within the party.

But that was also the path charted by the PDP, which delighted in weakening and destabilizing opposition parties and at the same time sought to eliminate all contending tendencies  within the party in favor of a hegemonic clique that sought to exercise absolute control over the party’s affairs. This strategy worked to the benefit of its perpetrators in the short run but ultimately resulted in the implosion that led to the PDP losing power at the centre in 2015, a catastrophe from which it is yet to recover. Let us hope that the APC can learn the appropriate lessons and quickly return to the path of internal democracy in its own best interest.